Here is the first image i drew. This image is of better quality because of the simple design.
Leavon is a freelance concept Artist, he mainly works in the gaming areas. He began his career when he was 15 and he got a job creating comics. He got his first job creating games at 17, once he was 18 he decided to go to college to get some qualifications to help him pursue his dream career. He took and Art & Design course at Chesterfield College although he was more interested in Graphic Design he really enjoyed the course. He believes that the life drawing he took part in during his time at college is one of the main reasons he has come so far in his career, he still takes life drawing classes as he believes it is a great help for his character drawings, being able to draw body shapes and in the right proportion.
He started off with very basic characters and was working in 2D. His first gaming job was inspired by the works of Walt Disney. As he progressed and got more and more gaming jobs his character designs improved and he began using different applications such as Photoshop, this gave him the chance to explore working in 3D and he loved it!
He got to work on a Pirates of the Caribbean game for Xbox 360, photographs were taken from the set of the movies to give him a good idea on skin colour textures etc.
He also shows an interest in fantasy art using brush and pen and ink. He looks at anatomy using parts of the human body and muscle structures to get inspiration for creatures and aliens.
He has worked on statues to, and as he has never worked on the design of animals before he decided to create a Russian statue of a horse and its rider. He said that it was great to get a chance to to work on this project because as a character artist you never a chance to use environmental pieces.
He also discussed with us that a lot of people ask him if he ever gets a chance to create his own projects, and he told us that he has a lot of spare time and he uses this to create his own projects, he’s currently working on a project that he is hoping one day will become a film.
Although a lot of the projects he has worked on have fell through he said the experience has been great and having the chance to work on them has been unbelievable. He regrets working on a lot of the projects he has worked on though as he didn’t get the experience he expected.
Sometimes he draws straight into Photoshop using a graphics tablet instead of sketching the images, although sometimes he will sketch an image and then take a photo and upload it to his computer to then edit on Photoshop. He uses various effects on images when editing in Photoshop such as mirroring the image or blurring it etc. Likes to explore new techniques and make his work look more interesting.
When designing characters before he sends them off to the customers he has to have more than one photo, preferably 3 from all angles.
He designs his images in photoshop and then uses an application called Z-Brush to add sculpture to the images. Z-Brush is a sculpting product associated with the Lord of the Rings movies and games.
I found his work really interesting and I liked the fact that he shows a great interest in his work and has a lot of passion. I am not interested in character drawing for a future career but I found a lot of tips he gave us useful.
Poster One - Peace Love Recycle.
This is a recycling poster that i found on google images. This poster is advertising recycling in general. I like this poster because it has not been put into an organized layout, each image is just placed touching the image next to it, they haven't been layed out as if they were to fit into a grid. Because the poster has been made to represent a different slogan "Peace Love Happiness", it makes it seem more attractive and draws your attention into reading it. I really like the bright colours and the childlike effect of the text, i think this makes it seem more interesting and it doesn't just attract adults it also attracts the younger generations. I think that because it doesn't have a large amount of writing telling you what the poster is aimed at, it makes you more willing to recycle, because when posters have a large amount of text (unless it is a subject you are seriously interested in) you would not want to read it. I would like to make my poster like this as it is very simple but it is very attractive and it represents its outcome clearly.
Poster Two - RECYCLE! Its a plus for the Environment.
I also found this poster on Google images, this is also a poster advertising recycling in general. I like this poster because it seems quite childlike, it could of even been designed by the younger generation. i think it has been aimed at younger people and obviously trying to encourage people of all ages to recycle. It is mainly showing the recycling of paper so maybe this is what it is advertising, maybe it is advertising in pictures rather than words because people tend to be more interested in images. I like the posters layout because it isn't really organized making it seem more simple. I also like that there are images blended into the background showing you how to recycle, but the designer has not made them the main object as it will put people off. I wouldn't use a design like this for my own poster because i think there's a bit to much going on, but i would definitely like my poster to have the same outcome.
Poster Three - you CAN do it! RECYCLE.
Poster Four - How many ways can you think of to recycle?
Here is another recycling poster i found on Google Images, this is advertising recycling in general. I like the fact that it is humorous and quite child like. I don't really like the colour combination of the background and the image i think it is to much of a contrast. I really like the fact that the text is small and at the bottom so if your interested you will read further into it to see what it is about, i also like that it is showing you that its the earth your harming by not recycling, i really like the fact that it is straightforward to the point. I would definitely like my poster to look like this because i like the simple cartoon character.
Conclusion:
I have learnt a lot from looking at these posters, it has given me a variety of ideas of what i could use in my poster and what i shouldn't put in my poster. I already had numerous ideas of what i would like my poster to look like, but after looking at the other posters it has given me a more precise idea of what i would like my final outcome to look like.
For this project we are going to be creating our first live project for Chesterfield Borough Council. The project is to design a recycling scheme aimed at small electrical goods. By the end of the project we are hoping to have designed a poster encouraging the general public to consider the life cycle of goods that they may have previously sent to landfill sites e.g. hairdryers irons etc.
We are going to be researching contempary artists who use recycled goods in their work. We are also going to investigate recycling/green themes and imagery alongside more contemporary illustration styles that you might want to use as inspiration.
For our posters to be successful we need to develop the use of visual imagery coupled with quality typography to be powerful enough to change peoples actions and perception of recycling their small electrical goods.
I have looked at the work of an artist ‘Clare Graham’, he uses recyclable items or ‘discarded materials’ such as tin cans, bottle tops and buttons in his work. He began his work during his childhood, growing up in a working class family with limited means and four siblings meant he had to make the best of hand-me-downs and whatever raw materials he could possibly find. Obviously he didn’t expect to have a future career from the work he created as a young child. http://hautenature.com/clare-graham-artist-and-recycling-guru/. Because his work is enormous in scale he has to work in a warehouse in Highland Park California.
Here is my four year old sister Sammie enjoying the snow. This picture was taken before the big downpour of it! By her side is my mini snowman. Just minutes after my stepdad had shoveled some of the snow into a pile she decided she would attempt to dive onto it!
The local park where we spent most days sledging!
